 |
| Aerial Bikes II by April M Rimpo |
Aerial Bikes II
acrylic and watercolor
13.5" X 22" varnished gallery wrapped paper*
More inspiration from aerial photographs I took in New York City resulted in Aerial Bikes II. I am really happy with the clean lines I achieved in this painting. I decided to do this as a gallery wrapped painting so the image doesn't have to be constrained by a frame. Since gallery wrapped paintings are varnished there is no need to put the painting under glass. The gallery wrapped edge eliminates any visible staples.
Here is a little on my process for this painting. Because this is a small, non-standard
sized painting I decided to use an old frame as the stretcher bar. No need to buy special stretcher bars when other materials are available. The frame is cut to 13.5” X 22”, the final
size of the painting. I varnish the
frame, as I would varnish a stretcher bar, and then stretch the paper
over this frame. I put the drawing on the paper before
wrapping it on the frame. A 1.5” boarder was left around the image which wraps around the frame. Normally I stretch the paper first so I don’t
have to worry about the alignment being perfectly square on the frame, but since this is a small painting I believed I could control the stretch. This approach worked out well. I do like to experiment with different methods to allow me more flexibility in my work.
 |
| First step prior to stretching |
While preparing the frame for stretching I went ahead
and used very watered down fluid acrylic to splatter the paper, as shown at
right. The splatter is an initial textural
layer for the building and sidewalk. A lesser amount of
splatter is on the umbrella to unify the painting.
Four colors of acrylic were used alone and
in combination for the splatters: Cerulean Blue, Paynes Gray, Quinacridone
Burnt Orange, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson. These same colors were used throughout the painting. I used some granular watercolor pigments (Daniel Smith Buff Titanium and Olive Green) in the walk and in the bushes.
* Framing not required on gallery wrapped paintings
** Contact April regarding shipping outside the United States
